Mad Skills: See how your hobbies can transform your career 

The subject of Mad Skills is on the rise, and the idea is that this concept can help in gaining employment. But, do you know what Mad Skills are?

Every day it becomes more necessary for candidates to improve their CVs in order to differentiate themselves from their competitors, increasing their chances of getting good jobs.

And, if before the curriculum needed to be in that traditional model, within a standard, now things have moved forward, and innovations are very well regarded by the companies' HR sector.

In today's material we will see what Mad Skills are, and how they can help to brighten your CV, come with us!

Mad Skills: understand the concept 

At first glance, many readers may feel completely lost when reading the term “Mad Skills”, as this is still a concept little discussed here in Brazil.

And, if you are part of this group, don't worry, because today we will explain this concept in detail, as well as see how it can help in your professional life.

In practice, the term Mad Skills is the corporate face of the famous “hobbies”, that is, those fun and pleasurable activities that we usually do in our free time.

The reason for the “new look” of the term is precisely because, while “hobbies” talk about informality and personal life, Mad Skills bring these activities to professional life.

And, you must certainly be thinking “why are my hobbies interesting for the company?”. The answer is simple: profile determination and extra skills.

Let's take an example: let's suppose that João is an accountant, and works in an office with several colleagues. In his daily life outside of the professional environment, he participates in a group of circuit games, which requires intense collaboration between the participants.

This hobby demonstrates that João has good team collaboration skills, and that this is a subject of interest to him.

So, the company can consider that João has a good profile for group work, and seeks this type of activities in his daily life.

Do you see how a simple hobby demonstrates an important trait of João’s personality for the professional environment?

Tips for using Mad Skills on your resume 

Previously we were able to understand what Mad Skills are, and why this has become an important topic in the corporate world.

But, although we have seen that Mad Skills can bring important elements to profile assessment, it is common for doubts to arise about their use in the CV.

This is because we know that the information in the CV must be placed strategically, in order to make it simple and interesting for the recruiter.

+Do you need help creating a CV? Check out some tips!

So, simply mentioning different hobbies can make your resume unfocused and tiring, or even give the impression that you are “drooling around”. 

We must remember that Mad Skills are a new concept, so many recruiters may not know it yet.

So, if you don't include it properly, your hobbies on your CV may even cause some strangeness for those who are used to seeing only proven academic and professional skills.

We will now look at some tips for including your Mad Skills on your resume in a smart and safe way!

1. Assess the relevance of the hobby to the position 

Remember we talked about being careful that the Mad Skills on your resume don't look like nonsense? So, one way to “get around” this is through the relevance of a hobby for a given position.

For example, let's suppose you are looking for a job as a supermarket cashier, and in your CV you include “mug painting” as a hobby.

Do you realize that, although mug painting demonstrates manual skills, patience and coordination, at first glance it does not seem to have any relevance to the intended position?

Remember that recruiters do not usually evaluate resumes carefully, so they only read them superficially.

Therefore, it is important to evaluate each element carefully in order to give the correct impression. So, ask yourself: does this hobby convey any important value to the professional environment I intend to achieve?

2. Remember that interpersonal relationships also matter and Mad Skills can help 

Although many debate the topic, it is undeniable that interpersonal relationships have a huge influence on the evaluation of a candidate.

This is because, when we talk about interpersonal relationships, we talk about collaboration, kindness, team development and so many other important points.

But, have you ever stopped to think that simply saying that you have interpersonal relationship skills doesn't convey so many guarantees?

So, including Mad Skills that demonstrate cooperation and teamwork can be an excellent way to prove competence.

Read too:

Interpersonal relationships at work: how important is it? (vitalybrasil.com.br)

3. Enter your level of experience in a specific hobby 

There are those who say that “a hobby is a hobby”, and this is generally said to defend the idea that there is no need to prove a level of experience.

And, in fact, when it is just a free activity the need does not exist, but for the professional environment it can be interesting.

This is because knowing that someone has been practicing trail activities for 3 years demonstrates that that person already has greater experience with challenges and persistence.

So, next to the hobby, inform how much experience you have in the activity. This will certainly provide more concrete information to the recruiter.

4. Prepare to present skills in the interview

Those traditional interview questions are so traditional that they have even become the subject of jokes.

After all, who isn’t tired of answering “where do you hope to be in 10 years?” or “how do you describe yourself in a professional environment?” cast the first stone.

For this reason, more and more HR sectors are looking to improve interviews with questions that are beyond the obvious, and Mad Skills can serve as a margin for this.

So, get ready to answer questions about your hobbies, in order to present them as something relevant to your profile.

+Prepare for the interview: check out our complete guide to ace this stage!

How to put Mad Skills on your resume without making it tiring?

A kilometric CV isn’t enough, right? So, in order not to make your presentation tiring, it is important to include Mad Skills strategically.

This is because it is common to have different hobbies, but, as we have already seen, not all of them are interesting for certain vacancies.

So, the first tip is select only hobbies that make an obvious contribution to the position you are seeking.

Another important point is separate a section of the resume for Mad Skills. This will even help the recruiter to understand that this is really a hobby, and not an attempt to include amateur activity as experience, just to fill the CV.

So, by selecting your Mad Skills and placing them in a single section, it will certainly be easier to build a complete and efficient resume.